Afghan Taliban detainees to be released

Pakistan plans to release all Afghan Taliban prisoners still in its detention, including the group’s former second-in-command, an official said yesterday, in the clearest signal yet that it backs reconciliation efforts.

Regional power Pakistan is seen as critical to the success of US and Afghan efforts to bring stability to Afghanistan, a task gaining urgency as the end of the US combat mission in 2014 draws closer.

Afghanistan has been pressing its neighbour, home to an allied Taliban movement of its own, to free Taliban members who could help promote its tentative reconciliation efforts.